Does/Did your child with AD/HD have issues with bed wetting?

Didn't vote because against the odds I don't have any children with an ADD diagnosis. No bed wetters.

I can tell you I had my share of "accidents" as a child. The not drinking water trick before bed, by the way is just torturing a poor kid. Especially one who may forget they are thirsty as all get out. If they are dehydrated they will not have to go. The "accidents", like pattern sleep disturbance in 75 % of adults with ADD are the result of the fact that ADD doesn't clock out after dark or when we go to sleep.

My bed wetting lasted an embarrassingly long time and my father was less than understanding. His solution was to place the soiled linen on prominent display. Thus motivating me. My mother halted that, THANK GOD.

I wonder, if it's co-morbid to, or a direct result of executive functional issues. In other words, is it ADD or a related problem? Do you know Tara? I ask for a reason.

Some of you may have seen some of the other posts I have made regarding taking stimulant meds before bed. I do not know if this is acceptable or advisable with children. Only a doctor can make that call and I would never suggest experimenting without consulting one. I do know that the doctor I initially got this information from has tried this particular intervention with his adult patients and spoke of it generally in a lecture aimed at mostly adult sufferers but addressing children too, so he may have meant both. It is a realatively new approach in the main stream, though not at all a new idea. So, most doctors, even specialists are not going to be enthusiastic about it. I had to beg my doctor to let me try it and he's the one who gave me the tape with the info on it. Now he's trying to sell the idea to other Navy doctors and they are resisting the idea. The studies supporting this standard of treatment were conducted in the late ninties through 2003 and published in 2003.

Long story short, the two molecules Methylphenidate, and amphetamine which are the basis of all 14 or so ADD drugs currently on the market (we aren't including the non-stimulant meds approved or non-approved off lable use), typically have a paradoxal reaction in ADDers. Which is to say that while certain effects do seem to be typical stimulant, like an increase in heart rate, and blood pressure, and decrease in appettite, on the whole we experience quite the opposite effect pne would expect from a stimulant. We become more focussed and calm. Even the jump in blood pressure and heart rate isn't generally extremely pronounced. Usually averaging out in the area of nine BPM or so.

An ADDer should be able to nap easily on their meds. In fact, we ought to, and I do, be able to take a full 8 to 12 hour course of long acting stimulant meds prior to going to sleep to stave off pattern sleep disturbance. Because ADD is the root of those sleep issues. Maybe such a dosing as a child would have stopped my bedwetting? I wonder if speaking to a doctor regarding that would be worthwhile?

Anyway the name of the guy who discussed roung the clock treatment was Dr. Bill Dodson. If you want to google search him. He practices in colorado. I think Dr. Biederman in Massachussetts was one of the study providers. If I get some time off work I can see if I can track Mr. Dodson's E-mail Address down and see if he will let me post a transcript of the tape I have here.

Tara,

I know I ramble. I am just trying to cover all the ideas on a topic that rang a lot of bells for me. Good one to bring up!

Is it better if I break up the post with the spacing like this? Does that make the ramble not quite so bad? Sorry, but that was a really good topic!

Well this one is in the parents of ADD children section and asks about children not adults.

I brought it up here because there was some discussion about the connection of bed wetting and AD/HD in a professional AD/HD group which I am a member of. I was just curious as to whether parents are dealing with it as a issue with their AD/HD children.

I didn't answer the poll, because my 5-y.o. doesn't have an official ADHD dx. (I consider it likely that someday he'll get one.) But he does still have issues with bedwetting. I really hope he can ditch the Pull-Ups before his first sleepover!

My kids have no bedwetting issues. I will say that every one of the boys under ten that my husband and I fostered had bedwetting issues and also AD/HD. That is not really a reliable population to go by, though, since all of the boys came from abuse or neglect situations. We noticed that the medication used to treat eneuresis had positive effects on the AD/HD symptoms. I guess I answered the question and then some. Tara, if you want more info, let me know.

My 9 and a half year old son had wet the bed up to about a few months or so ago..he has adhd-combined. When he got to the age that he would be going on camp-outs and sleep-overs we discussed this with our doctor. He told us that many children do continue to wet the bed and since there as nothing physically wrong with him that he was sure he would out-grow it. He also told us NOT to limit Brandons intake of fluids..it wouldn't make any difference. We just continued to assure Brandon that accidents happened and that he would out-grow it. It had such a negative affect on his self-esteem no matter what we told him. However, he has not wet the bed in months (unmedicated at the time).
Also, my sister-in-laws daughter has wet the bed up into her teens. After many tests they found that she was having small seizures in her sleep. For whatever reasons (I am not privy to all the information) there seems to be an awful lot of late bed-wetting on my husbands side of the family. My five year old son still wears pull-ups because he also wets the bed. We have not had him tested for adhd yet. He doesnt show the same symptoms that Brandon did at this age (impulsive,focus problems).So, I am hoping that he grows out of it faster than Brandon did..I am pretty sure that he will along with the same positive reinforcement that we gave Brandon.

Dakota did and sometimes sadly still does. He's a deep sleeper he once slept thru us picking him up, throwing him over my shoulder and running to the neighbor's tornado shelter in the middle of down pouring rain and hail. Man must be nice.

Hi I am new to the boards and this is my first post. My 8 year old son was recently diagnosed with adhd - inattentive. He is currently taking adderall xr. He wets the bed every night. Is this something that is associated with adhd?

I don't know if it's exactly associated with ADHD. My son had some trouble but my daughter also ADHD did not. Have you taken him to his pediatrician. My son had a small correctable problem with his urethra and hasn't had trouble since except on night's when he is really sleeping hard.

Hugs and good luck

His pediatrician told me that it's something he just needs to grow out of. I do plan on talking to him about it again on our next visit.

I got to thinking about this. Is this something new since he started Adderall? I'm just shooting in the dark but maybe it's a short term side effect that will go away?

No, he has wet the bed since I can remember. Just wondering if it was associated due to some of the other posts that I have read. Thank you.

My 10 yo ADD daughter took a long time to go all night dry. She slept like a rock.

My 5yo non ADD daughter still wets the the bed atleast 3x a week. WhenI asked the pediatrician about that, I was told it has to do with how deep they sleep. As she get older, she won't sleep as deeply and will get up if she needs to go to the bathroom.

kysmom,

One of the thing's I found with my son was that using dry night's pull ups worked wonders. He would spend half the night so pretified that he'd wet himself and the second half of the night passed out cold in a un wakeuble exhausted coma. With the pull ups' there was less humiliation and he had control over the issue.

Thank you. That is what we use too. Having him use the pull ups helps him sleep without worrying and it also eliminates the mess. He is just really tired of wetting the bed and wearing the pull ups everynight. And from my stand point I was thinking that if it was in some way associated with ADHD that maybe once he has been on the medication for awhile the bedwetting would subside. Ultimately, I think that I just need to talk to his ped. again and find out at what age is it not normal for children to wet the bed.

Thank you for your input.
Keri:)

You know my son increased for the first month on Adderall then it declined steadily until he has no more accident's. So, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a little trouble at first. Don't lose heart or your little guy will. I know I've been there easier said then done. Good luck I"m sure everything will work out for you eventually.

Hugs
Cherity

p.s. We also noticed less trouble when we cut the caffeine down and he had nothing to drink for a least an hour before bedtime. It's an idea anyway's.

It's extremely common, especially for boys, to continue wetting at night until 6-8 yrs old - they're bladders aren't fully mature yet. All three of my boys are ADHD. Two never had any problems with wetting, but my 7 year old does every night. We don't use pull-ups, but get the more generic type "overnights". They're completely white and look/feel more like real underwear. If he has a sleep-over, he knows to take his pajamas (and his overighter) to the restroom to change in private, and again in the morning with his clothes.

Also, over on another ADHD board I frequent, they are talking about a medication the doctor can prescribe specifically for the bedwetting - it's a nasal spray. I can't remember the name, but I am going to ask our pediatrician about it at our next check up.

It is called DDAVP and I'm pretty sure it is some derivative of an antihistamine. Greg???

My son was prescribed this medicine by his pediatrician I have kind of been leery of giving it to him because it just feels strange doing it on top of the Adderall for ADHD (feels like I am having to medicate every aspect of his life).He uses the Goodnites also but he is tired of waking up with a wet one on, as opposed to a wet bed, not sure which would actually be worse, anyway.I think I will start giving him the DDAVP.

This is one problem that we have never had with John, after using pull ups for a while when he was dry all day and only using them at night he said to dad one night "I don't need them anymore" we let him go without and never looked back, but he does wake up every few hours or so, which means he just goes himself if he needs to.

Son still wets bed, although I'm not sure how much because he changes his clothes and I don't find them until later

He will not wear pull-ups. I have tried and tried

Awww Dylan's mom bless his sweet heart. Honestly, you ever worn a pull up? It's basically the same concept of an attend worn by the elderly, we had to wear them for an entire shift as an empathy program and let me tell you HOT! ITCHY! UNCOMFORTABLE! not to mention the entire mental issue with wearing a diaper *shakes head* I can't wait to get old.. NOT!

Have you tried speaking with your doctor about a med that will help? Have you tried cutting back fluids before bedtime? It's just sad wouldn't it be great if we could fix all life's problems for our kids.

There's a behavioral approach to stop bedwetting too. It is a sensor that attaches to the child's underwear. When the child wets, a buzzer goes off ...waking the child up. The behavioral theory is: at first the buzzer is the signal that wakes the child up, but eventually the "full bladder" will serve as the signal that wakes up the child.

first there is a feeling of a full bladder
then the buzzer sounds (when the child wets)
then the child wakes up
Eventually the middle step (the buzzer) can be removed. It follows the same theory as the research with "Pavlov's dogs." The dogs were fed everytime a bell dinged. Fairly quickly the dogs would produce saliva upon hearing the ding (even before the food was presented to them). Actually, after the dogs' learned ding = food, they learned men in white lab coats (the researchers) = ding = food. The "learning" was involuntary ...the dogs weren't thinking "I heard the ding, that means food, I better start producing saliva!" In the same way, the buzzer is supposed to teach a person's body to wake up when it feels a full bladder. Does that make sense?

I can get info on where to purchase this buzzer sensor thing, if anyone is interested. It was developed to stop bedwetting, but we use them at school to help with toilet training for some of our more disabled students. It has worked for 2 out of the 3 students that have used it since I've been working there. The third student is still using the buzzer --I'm not sure how his toilet training is progressing as I do not directly work with him.

I'm personally not in need of the information; but, I have a lot of friends that could put it to good use and I will be toilet training the baby within the next century I'm sure lol. Your very helpful Ginga it's greatly appreciated!

I'm under the gun right now cuz I messed up the due date on the end of summer reports ...I've got 8 more reports to right tonight! :eek: UUGH!
But I'll try to remember to get the info tomorrow.

NO rush!! Work comes first alway's.

I forgot to get the ordering info for the buzzer, but I did find out that it's called a "wetness sensor." I googled it, and got a bunch of links.

A few notes based on what I found on the web:


Many kids are such deep sleepers that they won't awaken to the alarm. There are vibrating alarms & flashing alarms too, but it sounds like parents may need to take responsibility for waking up the child, at least initially.
Wetness alarms are successful for about 70% of kids who bedwet.
About 30% of kids who use a wetness alarm will "relapse" after the alarm is no longer used. However, they can be "retrained" fairly quickly.
According to SDRC: Do not trust those who claim one to two months for a correction. Many of their cases start wetting again soon....We will declare an enuretic “dry” only after at least thirty consecutive nights with a dry bed.
Regarding DAVPP: Significant improvement in 25 percent to 65 percent of children on DDAVP. Twelve percent to 40 percent of children on DDAVP achieve complete dryness.--from http://www.ucsfhealth.org/childrens/medical_services/urology/incon/conditions/incon/treatments.htmlSleep
Sleep Disorders Resource Center (SDRC)
http://www.sleepdry.com/about_our_program.php (http://www.sleepdry.com/about_our_program.php)
Info about bed wetting -- it's definitely geared towards selling their "program," but it seems like pretty thorough information.

Also, I thought the following info from this page was interesting:
Sleeping incorrectly can also cause the child or adult to not receive the full benefits from Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This may cause a shortened attention span, restlessness and excessive daydreaming, and it may interfere with schoolwork and other daytime activities. (They are referring to very deep sleep as "sleeping incorrectly")

Bedwetting solutions
http://bedwet.net/AlarmTypes.htm (http://bedwet.net/AlarmTypes.htm)
Provides a nice comparison of the different types of alarms

Wet Buster
http://www.wetbuster.com/ (http://www.wetbuster.com/)
Is not affiliated with any aprticular product or treatment program (so info is probably not biased). It has info for parents, resource lists, research articles, chat rooms & message boards, links. It also has a section for kids that provides info, stories & games.
Resource list for wetness alarms from Wet Buster site
http://www.wetbuster.com/alarms.htm (http://www.wetbuster.com/alarms.htm)

ginga...Your WONDERFUL!! I knew you'd be an asset to the forums.

My son is 9 and he still wets the bed. We have tried the nasal spray and a tablet and neither worked. He uses Goodnights and they've become a nightly routine. His father wet the bed until he was 16 and great-grandma wet the bed until she was 21. The doctor said with the ADHD and the genetics of enuresis, he was bound to have problems. Since the medications are not working we are left with waiting until he grows out of it. He would sleep through a world war with the way he sleeps so heavy. We even tried getting him up in the middle of the night but he was so out of it that he'd pull the legs of his pants up, try to take his shirt off and pee in the corner! Who knows what he was dreaming about (sigh) At this point, however, the bed wetting is the least of our worries.

My son did have a bedwetting problem...he is a very deep sleeper. he also sometimes wets his pants in the day due to inattention...Nytone is very successful in eliminating bedwetting...it's a simple alarm that goes on the wrist with wire in the underpants...It works very well.

I have two ADHD Teens, One wet the bed the other didn't....
I think with the bed wetter it was lagged development not ADHD.

Keppig
I Dont Agree With You On That One Just Because One Child Wets Bed Dont Mean The Other One Will Not I Have Had Adhd My Hole Life And Just Started On Meds Here A Few Weeks Ago Yrs Ago Docs Didnt Have Enough Proof Of My Adhd But Now They Do Thank God My Mom Told Me I Wet The Bed A Few Times When I Was 12 To 13 And I Shouldnt Of Wet The Bed At That Age

i did.
now, i sweat like a dog with a full coat of hair in summer. i typically wake up covered in my sweat (movement in my sleep), im sure its sweat due to the fact that im usually sweaty all over, and second there is tons of leg hairs all over the bed as well. ive been sleeping with the window open for a while and that helps a little bit.

i also wake up about every hour or two now as well.

at one point i could sleep thru world war 3. when i was in 8th grade, we went on a field trip to washington dc by bus. i didnt sleep at all during the ride. i guess i feel alseep in pa (before gettysburg). i was out of it. the story goes that it took several people to wake me up from my slumber. i ended up waking up very groggy and was in gettysburg. i wish i could sleep thatway now.

I Sweat As Well When I Sleep Have To Have A Fan On Me And That Helps But Sometime It Dont And I Wake Up Through Out The Night Sometimes I Dont But I Used To Sleep Like A Log Where You Could Hit Me With A 2x4 And It Would Not Faze Me

my 7 yr old doesn't have a diagnosis yet (but boy we know he's got it) but will soon i hope for his sake he still wets the bed to the point where i went to the docs and got some desmopressing spray.

i do believe that his bed wetting has alot to do with the fact that he is on the go all day and has difficulty settling at night and so by the time he does go to sleep he sleeps so deeply that NOTHING will wake him up not even a wet bet

wendy

5 year old son wets at least 3 times a week and doesn't mind pullups. We did the good nights for a while (to look more like regular underwear) then they put designs on those too! Might as well use the ones with the designs he likes! LOL! He is waking up dry more often so I think we're headed in the right direction. 3 yr old daughter is dry more than him, boy vs girl thing? Doctor said for his age, very normal.

Barbara

I have 2 boys who are both dx with ADHD and they both still wet the bed. one is 7.75 yrs old (about every other night) and one is 5.5 years old(every single night he wets the bed). Thank God for waterproof mattress pads and Goodnight pull ups!

Hi everyone,

I am new to this list, having just received my son's diagnosis of ADHD Combined Types yesterday.

I found this link interesting -- my 8 1/2 yr old son had only three dry nights in his entire life until we got the SleepDry Bedwetting Alarm from StarChild/Labs. It is without a doubt the BEST $ 55.00 I have ever spent !!!

After three nights, he went 20 nights with no bedwetting, then had just one accident on Christmas night (not unexpected with all of the excitement). He has not wet again since then. He connects the alarm up by himself, and he now gets up to go to the bathroom during the night on his own.

His confidence has increased incredibly, and he is so proud of himself -- what a boost for all of us. We keep track of his progress on a chart, and he loves to tell everyone how well he is doing. (Most of our relatives and close friends are aware of the bedwetting problem.)

Please note that he was late at daytime potty training also, and had repeated "accidents" for a couple of years.

My youngest son, just six, has only had two night-time accidents since before age 3.

My husband and I were both bedwetters. My sister was not, but she was the family member diagnosed with ADD.

If anyone wants the info on the alarm -- I'm happy to give it out. It has a 1 year satisfaction guarantee and a 1 year warranty -- you absolutely can't go wrong !

I look forward to reading up on everyone in the forum. It looks like a great community !

Thanks, cosake